Let’s take a look at a normal bankroll and the possible ways we can utilize it. Our starting capital in this example will be $1,000. We like to play heads up, so we generally play online heads up, at the $25 tables, and we’ll play until we either bust or double up. Given this “win or lose” mentality about our play, we see that, in our roll, we have 20 buy-in’s to the given stakes before we will be completely busted, if we continue to play and lose at those stakes for a set period of time. The question is, from the point that we begin the bankroll, ($1,000) what is our risk of going broke if we play 20 tournaments? Very simply, we need to look at the odds of cashing (in this case, winning) or losing.

Anatomy of a Bankroll

We’ll assume, to begin our look into this subject, that you’re an equally adept player compared to your opponent. So, we’ll give the probability of winning .5, and losing .5. If we run the scenario 20 times, assuming we have to lose all 20 times to be “ruined” and go broke, the odds of ruin are 1/2^20, or 1/1048576. This is an incredibly low number, in case you’re wondering, so even with a simple 20 buy-in bankroll, you can put in 20 sessions over the course of a month and not put your bankroll completely at risk. These seems like simple logic, but many players allow themselves to bend this rule. Let’s say that, with this bankroll of $1,000, you see a juicy game at the $500 stakes with a guy you’ve played with before; and beaten significantly. You assume that, if the two of you play heads up and play until one or the other goes broke, you’ll end up the victor 60% of the time instead of your normal 50%. The question is, does the increased odds of winning this heads up match make it worth risking our entire bankroll in one shot? It depends on a few factors, but let’s look at the simple math. We take our 60% shot and run it 2 times, giving us a 16% chance of going broke if we play the match twice.

Now, if this 60% equity situation had arose in say, a $100 game instead of a $500 game, our risk of ruin would be a lot more acceptable to take a shot than the 16% chance of going broke at the $500 game. That’s thing about busting your bankroll; you can’t go negative in a bankroll unless you have backing or another source of income. When relying on your roll as a source of income, you cannot afford situations that allow you to go broke unless you absolutely have to.

Ruin In Action

An example of bad risk of ruin management is Jean Robert-Bellande, a player I give a lot of respect to as a risk taker, but as a bankroll manager, I have to say, he takes some of the wildest shots I’ve ever seen a poker player take in my lifetime. With a 15k bankroll, he sat in a 400-800 limit (with straddle mandatory) 2-7 triple draw, badugi, and badeucy game. He had less than 20 big bets for the game, yet because he felt he had an edge in the badugi and badeucy sections of the game, he put his bankroll on the line against players that had no problem playing that game with an expecting swing of 100k. Even if his expected edge in the game gave him a 70% chance of doubling his initial buy-in, because of how short he came in to begin with, two bad orbits could break a bankroll that has the potential to keep him playing for a lifetime.

Self-sustainability is a vital asset for your bankroll, and finding that point that you can afford 100 buy-ins for your chosen tournament buy-in, or 50 buy-ins for your chosen cash game, will allow you to play your best game, with the highest possibility of profit, without risking more than 1-2% of your bankroll at any given time. When you do want to take a shot, you can do so at a level that doesn’t risk a large portion of your bankroll (no more than 5-10%) and allows you to try to make a score that moves you up in stakes ($10 to $25 tournaments, or .5/1 to 1/2 NLHE) without forcing you to step down or quit completely if the shot doesn’t go well.

Keeping in mind the potential for ruin when you step up in stakes and the odds of going broke when you do increase your stake seems like a common sense topic. But, so many amateur players make the transition to a poker professional without grasping the concept of ruin, and before long, they take a big shot and find themselves busted and grasping for straws. Stay aware of your ruin potential, and you’ll never have to worry about finding yourself busted and out of the game.

This is one chapter of a 170+ page book. Read our review of The Poker Blueprint here; visit DailyVariance.com to purchase and view other books by Tri.

Knowing When to Move Up

Bankroll management is different for everyone. The number of buy-ins required for a stake before moving up depends on your ability to rebuild and your age. If you are young (18 years old) and have no problem moving down when you lose a few buy-ins at your shot-taking, I would try to move up as quickly as possible.

In fact, if I were to start over again, I would implement the 30 buy-in (50 for PLO) rule for whatever stake I am playing and move down if I lose five buy-ins at that stake. I would only play four tables so I could focus more on both my and my opponent’s play. I would take notes religiously and try to move up as quickly as possible. This is because how much you can win is highly disproportional to your poker skill. For example, a 1/2NL regular can make $100K/year and a 2/4NL regular can make $200k/year even though the 2/4NL regular isn’t that much better. In some instances, their skill level is the same.

Another reason why you should try to move up as soon as possible is that as you grow older, your willingness to gamble and take risk decreases tremendously. You have worked hard to get to where you are; the risk of losing it all is disheartening and at times, scary. You don’t want to deal with an enormous amount of stress anymore.
When you’re young, you don’t know any better, and that’s a good thing. You have a lot of hope and aspiration to be the best. You have that gamble in your blood. You want to play because you truly love the game. It’s exciting. The high when you win is comparable to the low when you lose. During this phase in your poker career, you should be as aggressive as you can with your bankroll. You have time and age by your side. If things go wrong, you can always rebuild. After all, it’s easier to rebuild a $1,000 bankroll than a $100,000 bankroll.

It’s not uncommon for nosebleeders to admit their reluctance to play super under-rolled as they grow older. These are the same nosebleeders who definitely wouldn’t hesitate to gamble when they were younger. In fact, they probably wouldn’t think twice. But now that they are older and are content with what they have, the idea of playing stakes that can ruin them isn’t appealing anymore.

So, whoever said you’re only young once was right. Considering that your earnings improve exponentially relative to your skill level, you should try to be as aggressive as possible with your bankroll.

You’re Young Only Once
Imagine for a minute that you are working at a corporate job and there are ten rankings on the company ladder. The CEO is at the top and the cashier is at the bottom. You were a cashier last quarter and got promoted to a higher position this quarter. You love your field. You are willing to work hard and hope that one day you will be at the top. It doesn’t matter why you want to be at the top (pay, status, power, etc.); the key is that you want to be at the top and you will try your best to get there.

How come some people don’t act the same when it comes to poker?

Why is it that in every job when we are at the bottom, we want to get to the top? But in poker, some players are satisfied with grinding out a decent living. There’s nothing wrong with being satisfied where you are. The problem is being satisfied with where you are without taking a shot at the top. In poker, it is extremely profitable to be the best player at your stakes. Other regulars stay out of your way. When you create tables, you get to play fish heads-up for a while before other regulars join. You also improve a lot because you’re playing heads-up. Most important of all, your earning potential increases dramatically.

The best strategy when becoming a poker player is to be as aggressive as you can regarding your bankroll when you are first starting out. You want to move up as soon as possible.

100 Buy-in Rule
I have never been a fan of X buy-ins rules. My philosophy is that if you are running good and playing well, you can afford a few buy-ins to take a shot at the next level. After all, with living expenses and variance in poker, your bankroll might never reach 100 buy-ins until a half-year later. By that time, your game might be stagnant because you are playing against the same types of regulars over and over again without learning anything new. You might risk playing down to your opponents. Or worse, everyone is improving so you keep staying at one stake and it’s tougher to move up.

Of course, when using an aggressive approach to bankroll management, you have to be honest with yourself and ask if you can grind lower games if taking shots doesn’t work. If you get tilted easily by taking a shot and losing, then approach the situation cautiously. Take all the time you want. Though, like my man Mike McDermont once said, “If you’re too careful, your life can be a fucking grind.”

One thing I want to be clear about is that I’m not advocating that you take shots in tough games full of regulars. I’m talking about the situations where you feel the timing is right and you’re feeling good about your game and luck. If that is the case, go for it. You eventually have to defeat them. Why not start now when everything is going your way?

Taking shots is one of the most important things you can do to improve as a player. First, it gives you a reality check—you might not be as good as you think. Second, you might realize that the players playing one stake higher than you aren’t that good and that you can beat them. Third, you can run good and never look back again.

So, when you feel good about your game and there’s a softer game at a higher level, take a shot. Give yourself three buy-ins and move down if you lose them. I don’t care why you lost. Move down. Once you start to lose an amount of money that seems big to you, you will play badly. And you will play scared. You will feel that you’re not. But trust me, you are and you will.

Move down. Reload. Try again.

If you don’t have a poker bankroll, do yourself a favor and make one. Even if you’re just a casual player who hits the occasional home game or charity casino night, delineating funds solely for gambling is a good idea. If you only play online, then it’s fairly easy. Your bankroll is the amount of money that you have online at any given time. You might have all of your money in one poker site, or you might have it spread across several sites, but you need to know what that total dollar amount is at any time.

Before we get into specifics around what your bankroll should be, let’s talk about whether you are okay with an aggressive Bankroll management style or if you would be better suited for a conservative bankroll management style. To determine which style is right for you, we need to first ask a few questions. Are you okay with having to “reload” and are you comfortable with “reloading” if you go broke? Are you playing for fun? Are you playing to make money? If you are okay with potentially going broke and having to re-invest more money to continue playing, then you might be okay with an aggressive bankroll management strategy. If you’re playing for fun, say at the annual casino night thrown by your work, and don’t really care what happens to your bankroll, you also might be okay with an aggressive bankroll management strategy. If you don’t want to have to “re-invest”, or you’re looking to slowly and steadily increasing your poker bankroll, you should lean towards a more conservative bankroll management strategy. I realize that based on the above, most people would wonder why anyone would want to use an aggressive bankroll management style. Well, you can play higher stakes with less money in your bankroll, and if you’re okay with the possibility of going broke, you can “potentially” make money faster using a more aggressive bankroll management strategy. You might have heard the notion of “Risk of Ruin”, and it’s an important part of your playing style and bankroll management alike. Risk of Ruin can actually be written as a formula:

Risk of Ruin = e-2 x WR x BR ÷ (SD x SD)

It’s not really all that important to completely understand the formula, but it is important to understand the concept. But, for those math junkies out there, in the above formula, e is a constant (2.718281828), WR stands for Win Rate (expressed in dollars per hour), BR is your current bankroll size, and SD stands for standard deviation (expressed in dollars per hour). What the heck is standard deviation? Well, there can be an entire article devoted to standard deviation, and there is a formula for determining standard deviation as well. I will save the Standard Deviation discussion for another day, but for this discussion let’s assume a 15%-20% standard deviation. There are several great articles on the internet about Risk of Ruin, and if you’d like to learn more, I’d highly recommend any of the articles devoted to it for further understanding of the formula. I don’t want to spend a whole lot of time on the formula, but I do want to spend some time talking about the notion of “Risk of Ruin”. The basic idea of Risk of Ruin is the possibility of going broke. In the above paragraph, I talked about whether or not having to “reinvest” was something you were opposed needing to do. The higher the value of RoR, the more likely you are to have to “reinvest”. RoR only really applies when you are locked into a “fixed” bankroll amount. So, RoR would apply to tournaments, SNG’s, and it could apply to cash games as well, if you are playing with a fixed Bankroll amount. This probably isn’t the case for the friendly cash game on Friday night’s because you can always reach into your pocket or go to the ATM machine to get more cash.

So, what does all of this mean, and why should you care? Well, the smaller the RoR value the less likely you are to go broke over time. So, if you want to maintain a BR and play within that BR it’s important to at least understand that the higher the RoR the more likely you are to go broke and have to “reinvest”.

Wow, okay, that was a lot of discussion around bankroll and bankroll management, and you’re probably beginning to ask when we’ll actually get to some numbers and limits to play within. Well, the good news is we’ve made it to that portion of the article. The below are some basic BR management guidelines. It’s also important to remember that just because you follow a BR management strategy, they aren’t perfect. I will give you an aggressive Bankroll management and conservative Bankroll management for each type of game.

Conservative BR Management:

9 man and 18 man SNGs: 40Buyins

27 man and 45 man SNGs: 80Buyins

MTTs: 200Buyins

Limit Cash: 500 Big Bets

No Limit Cash: 50Buyins

Aggressive BR Management:

9 man and 18 man SNGs: 20Buyins

27 man and 45 man SNGs: 40Buyins

MTTs: 100Buyins

Limit Cash: 250 Big Bets

No Limit Cash: 25Buyins

Now, let’s get into some real world examples. For the examples, I will use a conservative BR management approach. In our first example, let’s say that we’re playing primarily 9 man SNGs. I currently have a BR of $400. What buyin level should I be playing? Well, the above shows that I need to have 40 buyins to be able to play at a particular level with 9 man SNGs. $400(BR)/40(buyins) = $10 SNGs. Let’s try this same approach with 45 man SNGs. $400(BR)/80(buyins)=$5 SNGs.

I realize that this article could have been summarized in just a few words, and then I could have given you the answers you were looking for, but I felt that it was important to make sure you understand what the options meant and why they are important. You don’t want to play “scared” and you don’t want to become results oriented, and if your BR starts to get smaller, this is what will happen, and you won’t make optimum plays. Also, when looking at BR management, you need to remember, that it’s simply a guide. Am I saying you should never play out of your bankroll? No, I’m not saying you should never “take a shot”. What I am saying is that if you want to play poker for the long run, and you want to maintain a bankroll, and especially if you want to live off that bankroll, you need to completely understand BR management and adhere to it 99% of the time. The problem with “taking a shot” is that most people don’t just do it once in a blue moon. It starts to become a part of their daily game, and it’s a bankroll killer.

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I’d like to take just a few minutes to talk through all of the different ways that you can increase you online bankroll and have fun doing it too.

Increase your ROI
The first step for most players is to work on your game/skills to get a better ROI in the level of game that you are playing. Read books, read strategy articles, play more games, and learn the game better. I had been playing poker live for about 14 years when I started playing online. The first thing I noticed was that the games were different. I had to learn how to play online games. There was a learning curve. After the first 100 SNG’s or so, I realized that I had a positive ROI. Great, I’m making money now. My ROI was something like 2%. So, the first step for me was to work on getting my ROI to be something more than 2%.

So, the first way to increase your profits and increase your BR size is to become a better player, and work on getting your ROI in the games you primarily play from negative to positive 5%. Then work on getting it from 5% to 15%. Then work on getting it from 15% to 30% let’s say. By doing that, it allows you to make more money without playing any more hours or any more games because you’re making more money per game played on average.

Increase the Number of Games
The second way an online player can increase their profits is to play more games in the same amount of time. Now, there are several discussions around multi-tabling and how many tables are too many tables. The easiest answer is that the number is different for everyone. This will take some time to learn.

First let’s determine that multi-tabling is a positive thing. If you are play only one table at a time, and you are profitable, just think, if you played two tables at a time, you could basically double your $/hr. When you first start multi-tabling, you will feel like everything is rushed at first. When I first tried to play two tables at one time, I thought, wow, the game is much faster this way, and I don’t spend as much time trying to find other things to do (surf the web, read PTP articles, etc) while I’m playing poker. It was a little uncomfortable for the first 5 to 10 times I tried two tables at a time, but after those first few games, I realized that I actually concentrated more on the tables when I was two-tabling than when I single tabled. I wasn’t as distracted by other things. I was more focused.

So, after the first couple of nights of playing 2 tables, I began to feel extremely comfortable with two-tabling. Now, I’ve seen videos of guys playing 26 SNG’s at one time. I was pretty sure that 26 at a time was more than I would be able to handle. So, let’s stick with two-tabling for a minute. After the initial 10-20 games of two-tabling, I realized that I could easily play 2 games at the same time, and it had no real impact on my abilities. So, it dawned on me. Oh my god, I understand the value of playing more than one table at a time. I don’t have to get any better as a player and by moving from 1 table at a time to 2 tables at a time, I can double my profits without anything else changing.

Now, the hard part is how many tables are too many. I think that should probably be an article all on its own, and I am working on that article as well. So, look for it in the near future.

Okay, so now we’ve worked on better our skills and our understanding of the game. We’ve seen our ROI move from negative to positive to bigger and bigger positive numbers. Then, we also went from playing 1 table at a time to playing 2 tables at a time. That gives us another way to increase our profits/bankroll. Now, let’s discuss the one that most players want to do right away.

Move up in Buy-in Amount
Let’s say I started my online career with $1 45 player SNGs. I got better at the game, and I started playing more than one at a time. Now, I’ve decided I’m ready to move from $1 to $3 buy-ins. Am I ready? Only I can answer that for me. If I think I’m ready, let’s dive on in. Don’t be shocked if it takes a few games to get a feel for the differences in playing styles, average ability and other differences from the last level you played.

Okay, so I am now registering and playing $3 SNGs. Great, that’s another way to increase profits right. Let’s start looking at the ROI. Am I positive? Is the ROI number getting larger? These are the same things, we first starting looking through at the $1 level, right? Well, guess what, we’re doing it again. I’m also back to running only one table at a time, until I feel comfortable that I can be profitable at this new level. Once I am comfortable and profitable at the new $3 level, let’s throw a second table up at the same time.

So, as you can see, there is a pattern forming here. The pattern is basically a cycle that we go through as we move through our online career.

* Start at a certain buy-in level and learn how to play well at that level
* Increase the number of tables from 1 to some number you are comfortable with
* Move up to the next buy-in level
* Go back to step one

So, it’s the rinse and repeat method of increasing your profits and your online bankroll. Now, in conclusion, understand that there are several other things to think through while move through the above steps. What size does my bankroll need to be to single table at a certain buy-in level? What does my BR need to be to move up to the next level? What volume is too much volume for me? How many games to I need to play to get a good feel for my ROI?

All of these questions have been answered over and over again in several good articles out on the internet. So, see, just when you thought you were done with school, it looks like you have more home work to do.

Good luck at the tables, and I hope this article helps you increase your BR and become one of the top players you’d like to be.

Yes, we all try to win and make money when we “sit down” to play online poker. But managing your online game well starts before you ever take a seat. If you just want poker to remain something you do in your free time, and something just for fun, this article might not be for you. But if you are a “just-for-fun” player who wants to become something more, this article should be able to help.

WHAT SITE OR SITES SHOULD I BE PLAYING?
This might be an easy decision, and you might be on to step No. 2 quickly. If you have money on only one site, and you don’t really want to deposit or play somewhere else, that’s fine. There’s no reason to go out and play every at every online poker site just for the sake of doing it.

However, there are some things you can do if a. You have already branched out from a single poker site or b. Have a desire to try other sites.

If you already play on multiple sites, you should figure out where you play the best. Believe it or not, some players simply play better on one site than another. To do this, it just takes a couple of steps. First, go to officialpokerrankings.com — this is where you can look up your multi-table tournament statistics for different sites. Simply type your user name in for each site to collect the data. Look particularly at Profit, ROI (Return on investment) and ITM (in the money) percentage. Get the data for each of your user names and then compare them.

You’re obviously looking for a positive profit, a positive ROI and a decent ITM percentage. If one site clearly stands out from the others, you should be focusing your play on that site more so than others, at least for multi-table tournaments. You’ll want to focus the rest of your management plan around maximizing your play on your best poker sites.

Now, you want to repeat these steps using sharkscope.com (you can use
five free searches there a day). This will tell you how well you do in sit and go tournaments on various poker sites. Again, look for good profit and ROI. Again, note which sites you do the best on. You’ll want to play more of your sit and go action on this site than others.

If you have only ever played on one site, this is a good opportunity to see what else is out there. You can always download a poker client for free, and you can usually play games for free, with play chips. You should be looking at a lot of different variables. Do I like the interface and using the poker client? Are there a lot of players on when I want to play? Do the sit and goes or cash ring games I usually like to play fill up, or does it take a long time to start a new game or get a full table? Don’t underestimate simply feeling comfortable with the site and playing there. Being relaxed and enjoying the poker-playing experience can only help in the long run.

WHAT’S THE RIGHT BUYIN FOR ME?
So, you have a poker site (or perhaps several sites) picked out where you are going to play seriously. The next thing you want to do is a fairly simple exercise — how much should you be buying into online for cash games, sit and goes and multi-table tournaments?

Basic bankroll management is something that escapes a lot of online poker players. And it can be affected by a lot of variables. For instance, if you have lots of disposable income and you don’t care how often you deposit, you can throw bankroll management out the window.

However, that scenario doesn’t apply to a whole lot of people. More likely, you can afford to deposit x amount every once in a while if you are losing online and need to add money to your account. If that’s the case, good bankroll management can consist of a couple of choices.

Option A. I am depositing once this year, and I don’t want to/plan to deposit again.
If this is your plan for online poker, you should take a conservative approach to your bankroll.

Basic bankroll management would say you use a minimum of a 10% or 10 buy-in rule. That means you don’t use more than 10% of your bankroll at any one time.

Here’s an example: Let’s say you start with $1,500. Using a 10% rule, you would only play single table tournaments that are $150 when you first start playing on your roll. Or, in a cash game, you would sit with $150. You should be more conservative with multi-table tournaments, cutting your buy-in by at least half to 5% of your bankroll. And remember you can buy into any game.

However, this approach is perhaps too aggressive for someone who doesn’t want to deposit again. It’s possible to lose 10 buy-ins, even if you’re a very good poker player. Is it likely? No. But good bankroll management plans for worst-case scenario – it doesn’t shrug off variance as something that doesn’t affect good players.

I’d suggest a 5% rule for sit and go’s and a 2.5% or 1% rule for MTTs. This allows for variance and will all but ensure that you will never go broke. If you do well, it will allow you to move up in levels without risking a lot of your bankroll to do so.

Can you go outside of your bankroll rule to play games above the rule? Strict bankroll management says no. But if you allow yourself to do it once in a while, and limit the number of times you do it, you can probably get away with. Just make going over your bankroll limit an exception rather than the rule.

Option B. I can deposit several times, and I don’t care if I go bust, because I can always redeposit.
The first step is to know exactly how much you plan on depositing in a worst-case scenario. It’s never a good idea to just be open-ended and say “Oh, I’ll just deposit whenever I run out of money.” Tell yourself you will buy in x number of times for x amount, and not surpass that.

Once you have that settled, you have a couple of choices. You can use bankroll management based on each deposit you make – i.e. treat each deposit as a unit, basing your buy-in limit based on the rules I outlined above.

Or, you could base your bankroll management on the total you plan on depositing over the course of a period of time. If you can deposit $1,000 5 times, you can use a bankroll rule that is based on $5,000. A 5% rule here means you can buy in for $250 on a single occasion.

Of course, if you lose the first four units and are down to your final deposit, I would recommend you revert to option A and become more conservative, and base your bankroll management on the fact that you only have $1,000 left.

It doesn’t necessarily matter if you follow exactly the plans I laid out here. Just have a plan for your money, so that if you have a bad run, your bankroll can survive.

WHAT GAMES AM I GOING TO PLAY?
Once again, this seems like an easy question. But it’s a question all players should ask themselves. You should obviously play higher levels at the games you are good at, and play lower levels at games you are not as good at, or games you are trying to learn.

For instance, if you are really good at no-limit hold’em and you want to play $109 sit and go tournaments and your bankroll allows for that, great. However, if you are learning HORSE but aren’t very good at it, you shouldn’t play at that level. You should play at a lower level until you prove you can beat that game at lower levels.

And another note for multitabling: Unless you are very comfortable at it, you should avoid multitabling different types of games. If you are playing NLH, you should probably only play NLH. It’s easier for your brain to keep up. If you are playing four tables and you’re playing, HORSE, Omaha, NLH and Razz, you’re likely going to get confused moving from table to table. Once again, some people can do it. But unless you’re sure you can, stick with one type of game at a time.

The web sites I mentioned above can help you determine what games you are good at: OPR for multi-table tournaments and Sharkscope for sit and go’s. But as you start to take poker more seriously, you should also be tracking your play on your own.

HOW DO I TRACK MY PLAY?
There’s a lot of ways you can do this, the most rudimentary using the web sites above to keep an eye on how you are doing.

That’s not a bad option. But it doesn’t keep track of everything you do (i.e. cash games), and it’s not all in one place.

There’s lots of options for tracking tournaments. Two of them are free. Many players track their play using Excel. That can be a lot of work to keep it up, but it gives you a lot of control of what you track and how you do it – from tournament placings to cashes.

There’s a free option on the Web, as well, called checkyourbets.com. It is fairly simplistic, but a little data entry by you creates a lot of data, such as your hourly rates, which games you play well, etc.

A simple search of PartTimePoker reviews will also reveal some options for software that can help you track your player, the most common and popular being PokerTracker, that does a lot of the work for you.

No matter what you do, taking your game seriously means you should track your play, and figure out exactly what you play well, how much money you make at different games, and so on.

Starting to manage your online game effectively is as simple as starting with the above steps. And you should see some improvement if you use the information you gather through these steps to improve your online play, and to focus your play where it needs to be.

The poker bankroll to a serious player is everything. Its what you should be most attentive to when deciding what limits to sit in, how many tables to play, and what type of game whether it be shorthanded or full ring. It is like your financial report to your business on a daily basis and it should be treated as importantly. In addition to the monetary bankroll, your psychological bankroll must be determined and used as appropriately.

The number that you may hear from a lot of poker books regarding a playing bankroll that have been written is around 300 big bets for limit games. Now, for live play 5 years ago that may have been the case. With the booming expansion of Internet play, that number seems to be outdated. The playing bankroll should be in tune with your psychological bankroll and not looked at as a fixed monetary number.

Your psychological bankroll in essence is the amount of money you need to feel comfortable about riding out swings within the game of poker. I use it in terms of % of monetary bankroll and in terms of Big Bets in limit and max buy ins in No Limit Hold ‘em. Some players have a higher stress tolerance for losses and some have very little. The higher your stress tolerance is the fewer buy ins or Big Bets you need for a particular game.

An example of this would be a person who doesn’t use their bankroll for living expenses and wouldn’t have a problem losing a large chunk of bankroll in one session would be adequate with 10 buy ins for No limit Hold ‘em or 300 Big Bets for limit. On a bad day they may lose around a third of their entire bankroll.

The other extreme is the quintessential poker pro who makes his living playing the game. The psychological bankroll required for this particular player may very well be 25 buy ins for no limit or 1000 Big Bets and higher in limit if they need to withdrawal their monthly “nut” for their living expenses. They need to have some cushion built into their bankroll to ride out some swings and not affect their play. Some pro’s risk tolerance is for even higher amounts of Big bet ratios to virtually eliminate their risk of ruin. That way on a very bad day they may lose 10% of their bankroll or less.

The idea behind bankroll and managing risk is that the fewer Big bets (or Big blinds for No limit) is that the greater chance you have of going broke. It doesn’t matter how good of a player you are, huge downswings are inevitable and by not managing that risk you can wind up sitting on the rail waiting to scrape up your next buy in. I don’t want that to happen to you.

For a high risk, take a shot player, he or she may sit down with some disposable income and have 50 Big bets and decides to put it all in play. They may win or they may lose and if they lose will just have to either wait for more money to play with to refinance their obviously inadequate poker bankroll. These players are the type that usually either lose quickly or win and move up to a higher limit quickly and run high risk plays with their money.

You need to figure out as a player what your risk tolerance is and adjust your bankroll accordingly. If you are a true gambler and want to either win big or lose quickly then put it all in play and take a shot. If you are more conservative, then adjust that Big bet number higher according to your risk tolerance. I personally like to keep 500 Big bets for limit games and 20 buy-ins for no limit games handy to keep my risk where I feel comfortable. I can comfortable drop in a downswing 200-300 Big bets and really not have to start to worry. I also do not play poker for my sole source of income either. If I were, I’d probably prefer 1000-1500 Big bets and 50 buy-ins for no limit games. In terms of money that would be to play the 2-4 No limit games full time for income I would want 20,000 dollars if it were my sole source of income. That gives you enough money to ride out any downswings and allows you to keep your head focused that you are not “running short”.

Figure out your own risk tolerance and your psychological bankroll. Keep it in your head at all times and use it as an important guide to your poker career. You’ll be glad you did. Best of luck and see you at the tables.

Cheers,

Bunky

Players watch games and see ‘bad’ play, often what they don’t realize is that the play is actually often correct given the opponents. When you see someone flip over 27o with aggressive betting they may look like a moron, but in fact they just felt that betting was enough to win the pot. Even if you know for a fact that the game is beatable there are 99 other reas…well there are other reasons.

Playing above your bankroll makes you conscious of the money. You should never think of the game in any form except number of bets. Casinos are nice enough to put the game in chips so you can see it in bet form instead of bills on the table, and there’s no reason to worry about the results of an individual night.

The average player at the table is better. Maybe not that one fish you followed over, but the rest of the table is likely to be better than the average guy at the level you’re used to.

When you have a bad run it kills your bankroll. If you play too high then step down to a level even lower than what you’re used to then it will take forever to catch-up.

The cute girl at the table is a hooker, not your future wife.

Believe it or not, its addictive. Gambling is addictive by nature. You play poker and reduce the gambling aspects of it by playing tighter or better poker than your opponents. I for one work pretty hard to not be enticed by gambling, but when you have a good night at the 30-60 game instead of your normal 15-30 its hard to not go back. Even though you only played that game because it was prime, you did win $3000 last session, might as well try again. I could go pro if this keeps up, after all.

There’s just no reason to take the risk. You’ve got a good thing going, why risk it?

Them folding more really isn’t good for you. I hear it all the time that the low limit games are impossible to beat because they never fold. If this is your view then you need to study a lot more. Read, then read more. Get low limit books, not the advanced books. You make all your money from your opponents mistakes, not from their good play.

You forgot your sunglasses and hat.

1) Don’t gamble. Every poker player has a bit of gambler in them – you need to check this urge right away. Every other game offered in a casino has a negative expectation. I don’t care how many books you’ve read or what ’system’ you have, the bottom line is that casinos love money more than you do and as a result, they offer NO games that you can beat. Picking up a blackjack or craps habit is one sure way to decimate a bankroll.

2) Avoid multis that cost more than 2% of your bankroll. Multi table tournaments are high variance in nature – see out article on this issue for more details.

3) Don’t move to higher limits just because you’re on a rush. I see so many players make this mistake. They run 200 into 600 at a 3-6 table and then jump up to 5-10, pick up another 500, jump up to 15-30 and go broke. Trust me, just because the cards are good doesn’t mean that you are. Jumping up is a function of greed, pure and simple – and is also a concession to that inner gambler that wants bigger wins, bigger risks and bigger thrills. Sadly, poker is not meant to be thrilling to those who play it for a living. Sorry about that.

4) Don’t treat poker winnings as ‘bonus fun money’. It’s very easy to deploy a rationale like “well, it’s found money anyway, I might as well splurge on a nicer TV with this $1500. Easy come, easy go.” That’s just stupid. Really. Have a long-term perspective, will ya? Use those winnings to support your bankroll so that you can eventually move up in limits and increase your expectation, and then buy the TV if you must. Don’t get me wrong, I have a big TV and they are really nice, especially if you’re a movie buff. But you know where I got mine? I bought it used from a friend who blew his bankroll and lost poker as a means of supplementary income.

5) Don’t spread out your bankroll across several sites. The total money you have and the individual bankroll you have at each site are two very different things. It is frustrating to play with short money, and it is doubly frustrating to go broke at a site, disproportionately so. Which would upset you more, losing $600 at a site where you had 2k or losing $600 at a site where $600 was all you had? Yes, mathematically it doesn’t make any sense, but that doesn’t matter – it still affects a lot of players more.